Literary Devices in Everything That Rises Must Converge
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Southern Comfort Thanks to the use of dialect, not to mention the subject matter, we know this story (like many of O'Connor's) is set in the South. The tension in this setting is perfectly summed u...
Narrator Point of View
The narrator of "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is super involved in the story. We get the characters' thoughts and feelings through dialogue and action, but also through omniscience (basical...
Genre
The southern part is easy: we're in the American South, shortly after integration. But Gothic? Does that mean, like, castles? Gargoyles? Goth kids?Well, kind of. Gothic lit dates way back to the mi...
Tone
ForebodingThe sky was a dying violet and the houses stood out darkly against it, bulbous liver-colored monstrosities of a uniform ugliness. (5) Way to start us off, O'Connor. From the start, we fee...
Writing Style
She's a Monster! Since most of the story is told through Julian's viewpoint, and he is definitely a drama queen, it makes sense that the descriptions are, well, a little hyperbolic. Like, when Carv...
What's Up With the Title?
"Everything that Rises Must Converge": way to mystify things, O'Connor. Let's take a look at a few pieces of evidence to try to hammer some meaning out of this bizarre title:The driving force that...
What's Up With the Ending?
The last line in "Everything Rises Must Converge," leaves us with a killer open-ending: "The tide of darkness seemed to sweep [Julian] back to [his mother], postponing from moment to moment his ent...
Tough-o-Meter
We were conflicted about this Tough-o-Meter. On the one hand, O'Connor's language isn't hard, exactly. Check out this sentence:She was almost ready to go, standing before the hall mirror, putting o...
Plot Analysis
He's Got 99 Problems Julian is a grown man living at home with his mom. We feel you, man. Worse, he's forced to take her to the Y every week for a weight-reducing class. More problems: His mot...
Trivia
O'Connor didn't have much good to say about other Southern writers: Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams made her "plumb sick."
(source)
Dialect can keep you down: according to a friend, O'Connor...